This tender and funny novel mines the unpredictable fallout of suddenly becoming single later in life, and the chaos and joys of falling in love the second time around. Modest and bookish, 62-year-old science teacher Edward Schuyler finds himself ambushed by female attention after his wife's death. The problem is that Edward doesn't feel available; he's still mourning Bee, and prefers solitude and the familiar routine of work, gardening, and bird watching. But then his stepchildren surprise him by placing a personal ad in the New York Review of Books, and the letters begin flooding in.

"[Hilma] Wolitzer uses her gift for her chosen medium, long-form fiction, to deliver a message far broader than this deceptively accessible novel first seems to address. An Available Man is not just a cautionary tale of geriatric loneliness and sex. It's a meditation—and then, a breathtaking roller-coaster ride, and then, a meditation again—on what we lose when we allow loss and longing to make us unavailable to ourselves."—Boston Globe

"Tender, witty ... smart and poignant, An Available Man explores some universal truths—that the past is never past, life is for the living, and dating is really, really hard."—O, the Oprah Magazine

"I absolutely loved An Available Man (and not, I swear, because I'm partial to widowers). For a start, Edward Schuyler is someone I desperately wish I could invite to my next dinner party (and not, I swear, because there are half a dozen women I'd like him to meet). This is a book to savor page by page, filled with astute detail, both comic and mournful, about what it's like to be middle-aged and lonely yet not give up on the search for love."—Julia Glass